Plain Packaging for Cigarettes Twelve Months On

Friday 8 November 2013 @ 10.04 a.m. | Legal Research | Trade & Commerce

The Australia Network News (ANN) has reported that "[A]nti-tobacco campaigners in India are calling for the country to follow Australia's lead on plain packaging for cigarettes". Almost a year on from the introduction of plain packaging legislation in Australia it is interesting to consider the impact that the reform has had and the way other countries and their health authorities are looking to the Australian legislation as an example of how to go about curbing the health problems caused by smoking.

India's Situation

In India's case it is reported that, as the second largest tobacco producing nation in the world where one million citizens die from cancer each year (cancer attributed to smoking and chewing tobacco), the opposition has introduced a private members Bill into the Indian parliament calling for logos and company branding to be totally removed from tobacco products.

The proposed legislation is reported to be based on the plain packaging legislation passed in Australia last year. The move to legislate for plain packaging in India follows on a series of court battles that caused the Indian government to introduce mandatory health warnings on tobacco packets. The warnings however, are in the view of health advocates, "weak" and stronger measures like plain packaging are required, ANN sources saying that: "despite the health warnings, many smokers - including children - still find the cigarette packaging appealing".

Smoking statistics for India quoted in the ANN report are sobering:

  • 50 percent of people pick up the habit at 12 to 15 years of age.
  • one third of Indians use tobacco, 400 million people.
  • the cost of treating tobacco related illness is estimated at $5 billion US p.a.

ANN's report indicates that overseas health authorities are seeing Australia as a leader in this field, one comment reported being:

"For Australia it was a big battle because they didn't have a precedent to follow but for any country that is following, now it's easier . . . "

The proposed Indian legislation is yet to be debated in the Indian parliament and the prevailing view is that "staunch opposition" will come from the tobacco industry whose influence on Indian employment and the economy is influential and substantial.

Proof Australian Plain Packaging Law is Working?

A recent Australian study reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) has shown that plain packaging makes smokers think about
quitting more often:

"[P]lain pack smokers were 81 percent more likely to have thought about quitting".

The research by the Victorian Cancer Council surveyed 536 smokers during the roll-out of the plain pack legislation in November 2012 while branded packs were still on sale finding that 30.6 percent of smokers using plain packaging said their cigarettes were of lower quality than a year earlier, compared with 18.1 percent of those using branded packs. The research also found that plain pack smokers were 26.2 percent less satisfied by their cigarettes than they were a year earlier, compared with 14.9 percent of brand pack smokers.

Who Supports Plain Packaging Law?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) states in an item posted to its website in May 2013 that they ". . . actively supported Australia’s pioneering tobacco control measure and is standing firmly behind all countries that face intimidation from big tobacco". It also indicates that:

"The plain packaging experience in Australia is being watched closely by other countries. New Zealand has announced its intention to introduce similar legislation and France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the European Union are also considering tougher packaging laws for tobacco products".

Who is Against Plain Packaging Law?

As the WHO website says:

"[T]he tobacco industry has taken high profile, aggressive measures against the Australian legislation, but these have not been a deterrent."

In the first legal challenge in August 2012, the High Court of Australia’s dismissed constitutional challenges brought by tobacco companies, awarding costs in favour of the Australian Government.

At the moment further legal challenges are pending in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and under the Australia-Hong Kong Bilateral Investment Treaty.

Ahead for Plain Packaging

After legal challenges are exhausted ahead will be the gradual acceptance by more countries that unless the "appealing presentation" of cigarette products is curtailed those products will continue to cause illness and death, add to the national health bill, and inevitably do financial harm by increasing costs to the economy.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

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